Pinochet loses abuse trial appeal

Augusto Pinochet

SANTIAGO - Ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet lost a key appeal before the Supreme Court after he failed to persuade judges he should not face charges for the disappearance of leftists during his regime.

The decision means Pinochet must face the first of a series of human rights charges against him related to Operation Colombo, which involved the disappearance of 119 members of a revolutionary group in the mid 1970s.

The Supreme Court ruled to reject the defence argument that Pinochet's health problems, which include mild dementia caused by frequent mini-strokes, made him unfit to face a criminal process.

In the past five years, Chile's courts have thrown out three human rights cases against Pinochet because of his poor health, but some doctors on a new court-ordered medical panel have said he had exaggerated his symptoms.

Pinochet has been under house arrest since late November on other human rights charges.

- REUTERS